<Begin Segment 7>

TI: Now after the "loyalty questionnaire" and you were, and your family stayed there, you started seeing activities like the Hoshidan and things like that. Did the family get involved?

EY: With what?

TI: With like the Hoshidan?

EY: Oh, Hoshidan, no, never did.

TI: But you saw that at camp.

EY: Yeah.

TI: So what did you think about that?

EY: I think it was no place to be doing things like that. You can keep your own opinion, whatever you want, you're entitled to your own opinion. But to influence other people, I don't think it's a thing to do.

TI: Now how about your father? Early at Tule Lake he was one of the leaders, the block manager leader.

EY: He resigned right away.

TI: I see.

EY: He has a habit of doing that. When the going gets tough, he said, "I resign."

TI: And then after that, what was his job after that? What did he do?

EY: Well, you know, it was good that he went to say goodbye to Mr. Coverley. You can't blame him, you know. There's nothing that you can say, "Mr. Yamashita, you did something wrong." No, he didn't. And that was, I think, to his credit.

TI: But then what did your father do after that? Did he get a new job?

EY: No. He had ulcers or something, worrying about things. But he was more thinking about me, and so the attorney that he shared the office with in the Smith Tower, he was released from some other camp, and so he was, opened up a practice in Chicago. And so he went to see Tom for consultation, and he advised him that probably Illinois Tech would be a good place for me to go. And so I applied for five dollars. For five dollars they accepted me, but I didn't stay because we had to get back here and work.

TI: But what's interesting is even though you said "no-no," they let you leave Tule Lake to go to...

EY: They didn't restrict me from leaving Tule Lake.

TI: That's unusual, because part of that, the reason for that was to determine whether or not to let people leave the camp.

EY: Well, this lieutenant colonel I think had a greater understanding, and I think he recognized. I said, "It wasn't me that was wrong," I said, "it was the government that was wrong." That's why he said, "Any red-blooded American would be angry." He said, "I don't blame you."

TI: But then you also said earlier that you applied to renounce your citizenship?

EY: That's right.

TI: So tell me about, that's a big step, because to renounce your citizenship, it's more than just saying "no-no," this was a big step for you.

EY: Yeah. They saw the simple honesty in me, I was telling everything as it was. And I think the lieutenant colonel wanted to see me leave, not to be influenced by those people in camp, because they can't do that. And I thought that he was... because he said, "You know, I don't blame you." He said, "Any red-blooded American would be angry."

TI: But eventually you decided to take back that application. What made you decide not to renounce your citizenship?

EY: Well, as my explanation, I said that I was influenced by the mood of the camp. But I thought that it was a mistake, so I wanted to take it back, and I had no problem.

TI: And who did that? Was that the lieutenant colonel that you were talking with? Or who were you talking with?

EY: That's the explanation I gave him when I was interviewing him, he was interviewing me.

TI: I see. But then the interview, was that during that interview that you took back the application?

EY: Oh, I applied before that. Before.

TI: Before, but then I'm trying to understand when you took it back, though.

EY: It was not a bargain.

TI: But during the meeting with the lieutenant colonel, I realize it's not a bargain, but at that point, did you want to take back the renunciation, or did you want to keep the renunciation?

EY: Oh, no, I didn't. I didn't want to.

TI: Okay. And so that was part of the discussion with the colonel, he probably wanted to understand that.

EY: You know, the lieutenant colonel, the way I saw it was he always felt that I was not of the other, so he, I think, must have interviewed a lot of people, and he must have had an idea by the feeling, what my thought was. But I said, I did say that... I said that, well, my thought was that I think the fact that I said that the government was wrong, I think that really weakened the government's position.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.